You Are Here:
UNESCO Protects Russian Environment from Olympic Claims of Russian Government
Russia wants to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in the city of Sochi, not far from Western Caucasus. Some of the Olympic facilities and venues are to be built in the close proximity to the site, but also in an area that covers the lands of the Sochi National Park.Until recently, it was against the Russian law to build anything at the site but the law was hastily changed before the bid was lodged.
At the WHC session in Christchurch, Greenpeace Russia distributed information proving that plans for the Olympics will eventually undermine the outstanding universal value of "Western Caucasus" and destroy the area's rich biodiversity.
Discussion of this site was initially cancelled due to pressure from the Russian delegation. But thanks to the information provided by Greenpeace, the WH Committee returned to the issue and considered the state of conservation of Western Caucasus.
"The fact that Western Caucasus was returned for discussion despite previous opposition from the state-party of Russia, clearly demonstrates how burning the environmental issues of Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi really are," said Andrey Petrov, World Heritage Project Coordinator for Greenpeace. "However, instead of addressing those issues, Russian authorities have launched a costly advertising campaign that distorts the real situation and aims to hide the potential damage to the unique natural complexes of the Western Caucasus".
Addressing the World Heritage committee, Greenpeace representatives expressed the deep concern of the Russian and international public regarding the future of "Western Caucasus".
The Winter Olympics 2014 are serving as cover for allocating high conservation value lands to construction of facilities that like a SPA-resort or golf club have nothing in common with winter competitions.
Besides it is clear already today that the construction will start and continue even if the international Olympic Committee decides to hold the 2014 Olympics in a place other than Sochi.
"Members of the World Heritage Committee are definitely concerned about what's going on in relation to Western Caucasus. However, the final decision of the Committee was not tough enough on the Russian Federation because the Committee did not want to influence the decision-making process of the International Olympic Committee," said Roman Vazhenkov, Head of the High Conservation Value Areas Department of Greenpeace.
"Nevertheless, World Heritage Centre and IUCN will be sending their monitoring mission to Western Caucasus soon and this mission will certainly uncover the actual intentions of the Russian side and the impacts on the unique territory will become obvious".
Greenpeace, without being against the idea of Olympic Games of 2014 in Russia, will take part in the mission.
Notes to Editor
The International Olympic Committee will be taking a final decision regarding the Host of the 2014 Winter Olympics at its session in Guatemala on July 4. Sochi (Russia) takes a solid third place in this contest after PyeongChang (South Korea) and Salzburg (Austria).
In early June 26 Russian NGOs approached the World Heritage Centre and the International Olympic Committee with a request to pay due attention to the environmental drawbacks of the Sochi bid and make a decision that will ensure preservation of the World Heritage property and will not compromise the idea of the Olympic Movement by voting for Olympics that will cause irreversible damage to the intact nature of Western Caucasus.
The “Western Caucasus” has very high level of biodiversity. There are about 1000 plants growing in its high mountain zone, and number of all floras and fauna species here is more than 6000. Rare and endangered Caucasus bison, Caucasian goat and Red deer as well as bears and wolfs lives on this territory. The Western Caucasus is also famous of abandons of relic species remained here.
